Dear Friends and Family:
We’ve been going through and eye-opening series at my church lately. I wish all of you could hear it! We’re learning about how we can know what God is like. What motivates the Creator of the world to continue creating, year after year? What is in God’s heart? What does He care about? If we can’t see Him, how can we know Him? It’s my 4th year at Grace Community Church and I’m growing there, especially over the past year. Here are some of the highlights of 2004:
WHAT MOTIVATES GOD?
MY JOURNEY TO THE HIGH PLACES
You know how much I love to read, so recommending just one book to you is a difficult task. But, if you read just one book in 2005, make it Hinds’ Feet on High Places by Hannah Hurnard. I read it in college and picked it up again this year…it paints a vivid picture that God desires His people to go with Him to the highest, the best, the purest heights of faith. God is motivated to continue creating because He wants a relationship with us based on faith in Who He Is.
It’s an allegory about a crippled young girl named Much Afraid who learns to trust the Shepherd (Christ). When she trusts, she brings Him glory. She meets many others along the way who both help and hinder her progress to the High Places: Sorrow, Suffering, Pride, Craven Fear, Self-Pity, Bitterness, etc. Even though she can’t always understand where He is leading her, Much Afraid develops her faith in the Shepherd and begins to see things differently. He name changes to Acceptance with Joy and her body is healed. She understands that life is not all about her. It’s about the Shepherd and His power to transform.
God made it possible for me to be above the clouds again this year, in a plane traveling to Europe once more with my mom’s French students in June. It was a trip that imprinted God’s high places in my mind: standing on the Swiss Alps throwing snowballs at each other, climbing the stairs of ancient castles, waving from the Eiffel Tower to visitors below, sitting on the crags and cliffs of the Brittany coast. All of it sang of Psalm 36:5-7:
“Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the great deep. O Lord, you preserve both man and beast. How priceless is your unfailing love! Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of your wings.”
We were in Normandy for the 60th Anniversary of the D-Day Invasion. We met British and American veterans there, in their 80’s or 90’s now, leaning on their loved ones as they walked between the rows of graves marked by the famous white crosses…I could tell by their faces that this was a place of strange and bitter solace for them. We stood inside huge craters made by air bombs and crawled into trenches, once full of gunfire, but now full of silence. It was such a contrast, these low places of war and underground holes of soldiers. What a refuge the Lord is when we all are afraid!
WHAT DOES GOD CARE ABOUT?
LET EVERY HEART PREPARE HIM ROOM
For all those veterans, the ability to start over when they returned home must have seemed like a miracle. They may have asked, “How can this be? Is it true that I get a new life—a new start now that the war is over?”
I have learned this year that the Lord cares about the restoration of His people. Many of you have seen this in 2004: His comfort while you are grieving the loss of someone dear to you, His provision after divorce, His hope when long-standing prayers have been answered in ways that bring the most glory to Himself. As in the Christmas song Joy to the World, He wants all of us to prepare room for Him in our hearts. I am amazed in my own life how many chances I get to begin again when something has ended: a relationship, a task, a chapter of life. With God, there is always something new, something good for us to grasp about Who He Is.
I moved into a great new apartment in Carmel in July. You’ll have to stop by when you’re in the area! My roommate got married, so I needed to find a new place again. It has been a process, learning to live alone. But it has provided me a chance to prepare more room for God—and I’m beginning to see that I live with Him—that He has chosen to move in with me. We have more quiet times together than we used to and there is a richness to my faith that I haven’t experienced before. I’ve decorated the place in my own “style” and had many beloved friends over at all hours…fillings the rooms with the kinds of fellowship I love. Our Bible study group has been meeting for over 4 years—it’s a continual source of blessing. I am learning that God cares about how I use this apartment: Is it open to others? Am I reaching out and inviting in? Am I preparing room for Him to live and breathe and be there, too?
WHAT IS IN GOD’S HEART?
CHRIST’S PASSION AND HIS ACTION
Like many of you, I saw The Passion of the Christ during the Easter holiday. Our pastor, Dave Rodriguez, paraphrased Scripture when he said, “If we want to know God, we should look at Christ.” What a picture of love He is! After I saw the film, I was overwhelmed at its honesty, reality, brutality, and impact. I saw myself in so many of the characters. Sometimes, I am the one who denies Him and at other times the one who holds Him close. One day I am the one who brings Him a drink and the next I am the one who turns my back. I saw the steadfast faithfulness of God, confronted with how passive I can be about Him. The Christmas story is part of the Easter story; at the center of God’s heart is His desire to be with us. He wants a relationship with those He came to save.
HOW CAN WE KNOW GOD?
THE PROCESS OF FAITH
This year has definitely been a Year of Faith for me. With your help, I’ve been stepping up, going out, moving in, and staying open to the work God has for me to do. It’s my 6th year at Traders Point Christian Academy, my 3rd as the school counselor. As I talk to the students, I realize a lot about what God wants me to know, too.
I tell the kids that life is a process—with many beginnings, middles, and ends. When one thing is wrapping up, another will start. It’s important to get more comfortable with mystery—more accustomed to hope. God isn’t going to give us all the answers to questions like WHY? and WHEN? and HOW? Instead, He gives us Himself. It is possible to know God because we know who Christ is. It is possible to love Him with our lives. Thank you for the many ways you have shown me that this year! May 2005 bring you the beginnings, middles, and ends of all He wants for you.
Love,
Summer
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